hey look at us we humans enjoy a pretty good life on this blue little planet called
earth okay maybe not that great we have to endure floods and tsunamis and earthquakes
and a lot of other hazards including those of our own making like wars and global warming
but what about the external threats thanks to the goldilocks phenomenon in earth's
electromagnetic field we can say that we're safe in this dangerous void called space
or are we the sun is the source of everything good on our planet but that doesn't mean the
grandfather of our system doesn't have a temper welcome to fact nominal and today let's talk
about the sun's wrath which can be the end of us all a solar superstorm we feel pretty safe
here on our quaint little planet but the harsh truth is that there are countless ways that
the very universe in which we're floating around in could wipe us all out with ease
to put it simpler a solar storm is a disturbance of the sun which can cause a stream of charged
particles and super hot plasma hurling outwards at one million miles per hour this tornado of
fire and fury could affect not just earth but the entire solar system in the short term solar storms
are the cause of space weather meaning the areas of space physics and heliophysics that determine
the weather conditions within our solar system these conditions include things like solar winds
with particular emphasis on those that occur in the space surrounding the earth such as the
magnetosphere the ionosphere the thermosphere and the exosphere while space weather is separate from
the terrestrial weather that we experience within earth's atmosphere it is indeed inherently and
conceptually related to it in the long term solar storms are the cause of patterns comprising what
we refer to as space climate meaning the long-term variation in solar activity within the heliosphere
which again includes things like solar winds as well as the interplanetary magnetic field
and the way in which the environment close to earth is affected by it those areas include the
magnetosphere the ionosphere both the upper and lower atmosphere and the climate we have
been affected by solar superstorms in the past but not to the kind of extremes we could have been in
theory in fact despite the effects of past solar super storms being troublesome on a global scale
the disruption our planet has experienced as a result of them have been relatively miniscule
in comparison to what could have happened in fact we should consider ourselves pretty
fortunate that we haven't been directly in the path of a particularly destructive storm
give you an example of what we have experienced in terms of solar storms perhaps the best example to
discuss is the solar storm of 1859 the storm was also known as the carrington event after
richard carrington one of the english amateur astronomers who observed the storm at the time
and compiled an extensive report about it having entered the private observatory that was attached
to his country estate near london carrington pointed his telescope skyward and spotted
what he described as two patches of intensely bright and white light erupting from a cluster
of enormous dark spots on the sun no more than five minutes later they had vanished but their
impact would be felt on a global scale within a matter of hours telegraph communication systems
all over the planet started failing and showers of sparks poured from telegraph machines resulting in
operators being shocked and anything flammable nearby being set ablaze the colorful auroras
that lit up the night skies were so bright that birds started singing their morning songs and some
people believe they were in towns were on fire while others set about doing their daily chores
believing the sun had risen and their working day had begun there was even a section of society who
believed the whole thing was aside from god that the world was ending but richard carrington knew
the true cause of the phenomena being witnessed by the masses an enormous solar flare with the energy
of 10 billion atomic bombs was hurling electrified gas and subatomic particles towards earth
causing a geomagnetic storm that remains the largest to have ever struck our planet
more recently in 2012 a solar superstorm of similar magnitude one simply called the
solar storm of 2012 past earth's orbit without striking the planet missing by nine days giving
how much our planet relies on electricity in modern times the effects of that storm could
have been devastating for us but thankfully we wrote our luck with a near miss other storms of
a notable nature include the three-day may 1921 geomagnetic storm and the solar storm of 1972
the former burned out fuses electrical apparatus and telephone stations as well as causing fires at
signal towers and telegraph stations essentially it caused a complete communication blackout that
lasted several hours the latter had the fastest cme transit time ever recorded and remains the
most extreme solar particle event by some measure it's regarded as the most hazardous storm of
its nature when it comes to human space flight during the space age there were several technical
disruptions and it even resulted in the accidental detonation of numerous magnet-influenced sea mines
a recent study carried out by harvard university has predicted that at some point
in the next century we could be struck by a hugely powerful solar superstorm one even more potent
than the carrington event and there's a very good chance that it might literally be an event
of apocalyptic proportions so what could actually happen in the worst case scenario if a similar or
even bigger solar superstorm was to directly impact our planet now well to put it in simple
terms the sun could go from being our most important resource to our most dangerous threat
avilobe and israeli american theoretical physicist who works on astrophysics and cosmology and is the
frank b baird junior professor of science at harvard puts it like this the sun is usually
thought of as a friend and the source of life but it could also be the opposite it just depends on
the circumstances love and his colleague manosphy lingam examined data on other sun-like stars to
see how likely solar super flares are and how they might affect us referring to the carrington event
loeb compared it to what might happen if a storm of similar magnitude were to impact us today
saying back then there was not very much technology so the damage was not very significant
but if it happened in the modern world the damage could be trillions of dollars
a flare like that today could shut down all the power grids all the computers all the cooling
systems on nuclear reactors a lot of things could go bad that in itself would be absolutely
horrific but it isn't just technology we should be concerned about the most extreme super flares
created by a large solar superstorm could send out energetic bursts of ultraviolet radiation
and high energy charged particles that could cause all kinds of horrendous damage for example on a
basic level they could lead people around the world without essential life-preserving power
turning off life-support machines while making it hard for those in freezing climates to stay warm
and vice versa but they could also completely destroy our ozone layer the very layer of the
earth's stratosphere that protects us from our sun's deadly radiation it could disrupt
entire ecosystems resulting in cataclysmic situations for all manner of living organisms
and they could even cause dna mutations but don't get your hopes up those mutations are
unlikely to give us super powers go web fly huh instead these mutations would cause skin cancer
and other life-threatening diseases studies prior to those of loeb and lingam's have
shown that such an event does indeed seem likely to occur within the next 100 years
and there is in fact a 12 chance of it happening in the next decade loeb has pointed out that not
too many people appear to be particularly worried about a solar superstorm occurring stating things
like asteroid impacts get all the attention when it comes to potentially apocalyptic space events
but he and lingam are convinced that super flares are just as likely to occur and pose just as much
of a risk greg laughlin a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at yale university has succinctly
pointed out that he's not lying awake in bed at night worrying about solar super flares
but he does go on to say that but that doesn't mean that someone shouldn't be worrying about it
fortunately loeb and lingam have been thinking of ways to potentially protect us from solar storms
one idea involves a massive loop of conductive wire between us and the sun
that could act as a magnetic shield and deflect the particles produced by flares away from us
there is however a major problem with that idea it would cost upwards of 100 billion dollars to
launch it into space it would be hard enough to convince those in power that solar storms pose a
big enough threat to warrant spending that kind of money on that topic laughlin has said i think that
seriously diverting resources to build a wire loop in space would not be the best way to spend money
but thinking more about how solar superflares work and getting a sense of how our sun fits in with
its peers would be a very valuable effort despite their concerns about the widespread apathy being
shown regarding solar super storms love and lingam aren't actually the only people to have thought
about how to protect us from them richard andres an energy and environmental security expert at
the u.s military's national defense university has spent a lot of time helping to coordinate
an interagency group to confront the issue head on among the group are representatives from the
white house u.s congress private industry the pentagon and agencies ranging from the
department of homeland security to nasa and the national oceanic and atmospheric administration
here's hoping they come up with something that works and even though the possibility of a world
ending solar storm is less than one in a billion don't forget the dinosaurs must have calculated
similar odds for a meteor crashing into earth at the very least if such an event doesn't
kill us off society could react to the resulting power outages with widespread unlawful behavior
just like it has in the past and the world could find itself in the worst social and
economic turmoil it has ever seen what are your thoughts tell us in the comments and if
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